Ends of Magic

The door opened silently, the lack of sound betraying Nathan’s expectations. The hinges had squealed loudly every other time somebody had entered the storeroom. Nathan was on the wrong side of the door to see the people who'd opened it, but he could feel the enchantments on the weapons and armor of five assassins as they slipped through the door quickly and without a sound.

Nathan disabled all of their enchantments with a second of focused attention, then stepped into view. The assassins, again clad in dark red, were focused on the bunker and the faint light enchantment the Heirs had left within, but they pivoted smoothly towards Nathan as he appeared.

Aarl melted out of the darkness behind them and attacked with inhuman speed, invisible dagger leading the way.

The lead assassin responded like lightning. He twisted to the side in a sinuous motion, his own weapons flickering out to slash at Aarl’s armored throat. The move was fluid and fast, equal to anything Nathan had seen Faline perform. But the weapons weren’t magical anymore. They scraped across the metal of protecting Aarl’s neck even as the invisible dagger grazed the man’s arm. He collapsed without fanfare. One moment the red-hooded man was a twisting wraith, the next he was sprawled awkwardly across the floor like a discarded puppet.

If the sudden death of their leader bothered the other assassins they didn’t show it, throwing themselves to surround Aarl and attack him from every direction. But without enchantments their weapons did no better than that of their leader. Aarl accepted hits to get in blows of his own. Over the course of mere seconds he seemed to figure out a new style, going for grazes and light injuries that his weapon translated into instant death.

The other Heirs watched as Aarl cut his way through the assassins. Any of them could have helped, but it didn’t look like Aarl needed any assistance. Besides, most of their help would have been louder than the brutal knife-fight happening before them, where the only sounds were heavy breathing and the sound of bodies hitting the floor.

The last assassin turned to flee, but with one smooth motion Aarl whipped the invisible throwing ax out of his bag and into the assassin's back. Aarl stood in the center of the ring of corpses, armored face turning to survey the bloodless carnage. Then he turned back to the other Heirs, helmet peeled back from his face to reveal a sheepish expression as he touched the spot on his throat where the first man had tagged him. “I am not a master of knife-fighting."

Spellslayer has leveled to 513! Your party has counter-ambushed a group of Zhark assassins!

“Better than I could have done.” Nathan said, stretching his magical senses outwards to check on the rest of the building. “I don’t feel any more enchanted weapons around. Or enchantments in general. We might be good to just leave?”

“Do we wait for Jaus?” Stella asked, flipping over one of the corpses to examine the light-skinned face.

“His hospitality has no weight.” Khachi spoke, stepping into the hallway and hefting his shield to protect against any further attacks. “We should leave, and expect further attacks.”

Sarah opened her mouth to respond, but Nathan cut her off as he felt a new magical signature in his widened senses. “They’re about to hit us with magic. Enough to destroy the building.” It felt like there was some kind of magical ritual in the front square, centered around a bonfire of fire magic.

Khachi and Stella reacted immediately, erecting layered shields to protect them from hostile magic - and the building collapsing on them.

Meanwhile, Nathan stretched his aura out, using one of his new class skills for the first time outside of practice. [Aura Projection] allowed him to extend his aura farther than it would normally go by spending Stamina. He’d tested it with Stella, and it easily let him double the volume of his aura by spending about a thousand Stamina. Diminishing returns kicked in after that, but he could still comfortably triple his aura before the cost added up to anything significant.

And I expect the exchange rate to get better as I rank up the skill.

He used that extra range now, sending a cloud of antimagic out of the building to catch the wave of destructive magic sent towards the inn. The ritual didn’t look like anything fancy, just a way for a dozen mages to pool their mana together to empower a singular spell into something capable of destroying a building. In this case that was a blast of fire and force mana, like a directed fireball spell that would have crushed the Golden Anchor to powder and then lit that powder on fire.

His aura managed the spell easily, picking it apart and subsuming the blast into enough Stamina to pay back his investment and more. Inside the inn the Heirs felt little more than a gentle rattle and a woosh of warm air as a tiny fraction of the spell’s power carried through Nathan’s antimagic.

Stella looked at him in confusion. “Was that it?”

Nathan smirked. “I caught the spell. Let’s see what they’ll try next.” He closed his eyes and focused his magical perception, spending more Stamina to send tendrils of antimagic snaking towards the mages.

He couldn’t detect the mage’s surprise at the failure of their spell, but he was sure it was there. They hesitated for a few long seconds and one flicked out a [Message]. With a thought Nathan activated [Magic Jammer], deciding that it was better to confuse his enemies than hold back such a minor card.

The mages outside started to channel their mana into the ritual once more. Nathan studied the mounting energy for a second before he reached out and cut a few key stabilizing loops in the ritual just as it ramped up to maximum intensity.

Another blast rattled the inn as the ritual destabilized and detonated. Magical fire washed over the square and ran headfirst into Nathan’s aura, sparing the inn any consequences of the magical sabotage.

Spellslayer has leveled to 525! You have slain the Seminary mages Drorloot Dadzerga, Genzervir Gibolmivra, Brunked Bitoscu and Jeken Jalisborg by turning their ritual against them!

Mystical Discernment 2 achieved!

Nathan chuckled and gestured towards the open door. “Our path is clear. The mages have been dealt with.”

Aarl gave him a suspicious look and led the way out, the rest of the Heirs in tow. They passed through the common room, which was completely empty. It looked like the inn had been recently and rapidly abandoned, with bowls of cooling fish stew sitting on the table.

At least they evacuated people, instead of killing them or leaving them to die from the fighting.

Stella opened the door with a force spell, revealing a nighttime city lit by raging flames. Every other building around the square was on fire. She shot a betrayed look back at Nathan. “You tell me to be cautious in cities.”

He shrugged. “It was their spell. I just broke it. They were the ones who decided to start throwing around that much magic.”

The red-haired mage rolled her eyes at him. “You’re free of regret when it's you that causes the damage.”

Sarah glanced through the open door carefully, Khachi standing ready in case of attack. “I don’t see any more assassins; but we haven’t gotten level-up notifications, so there are probably more somewhere close.”

“Are we leaving the city? Heading to Agmon?” Aarl asked, glancing out of the door himself.

“Eolinne first,” Sarah replied. “She’s not working with them. These are the same assassins as yesterday, with too much prep for it to be set up so quickly.” She indicated the deserted room. “They’re working with the oligarchs.”

“She might still be trying to kill us.” Nathan groused. “Just because she’s not working with these assassins doesn’t mean she’s not still out to get us.”

They exited the building carefully, heading towards the road that led to the docks. The stone in the center of the square was cracked and blackened from the force of the explosion, but it wasn’t aflame like the buildings around them were. Nobody was moving to put out the flames, or fleeing from the surrounding buildings. It seemed like this section of the city had been entirely evacuated.

At least the oligarchs seem to care about their citizens.

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Ss the Heirs stepped out of the square and onto the adjoining street a phalanx of guards came around the corner ahead, marching towards them in regimented ranks. The leader held out a hand. “Halt, by the authority of the Oligarchs. You shall surrender and be taken into custody until the origin of this damage can be ascertained. You will be sheltered from any who seek to harm you.”

A low growl rippled its way from Khachi’s throat at the words, and he stepped forward to confront the man. “You lie. Your words are hollow, and your honor blackened. You will not stop us from our goal.” Harsh light spilled from Khachi, shining balefully upon the guards and forcing them to cover their eyes or be blinded.

The squad of soldiers quailed before Khachi’s judgment, and it seemed like they were about to turn and flee before their leader collected himself. He stood firm against Khachi’s pressure, like a rock resisting the tide. “If you will not yield, you will be slain where you stand.”

Only the smallest amount of Nathan’s attention was on the confrontation ahead of them. He trusted Khachi to intimidate or smash a way through the guards in their way. They didn’t appear to be especially elite and shouldn’t be able to cause a significant problem for the wolfman.

Maybe we should just fly out of here. But then every archer and mage in the city would get an angle on us. There’s also good reason to keep that capability hidden for just a bit longer.

Nathan was keeping his attention and his antimagic high. There wasn’t a lot of magic in the area aside from some residual fire mana in the square behind them and the basic enchantments of the guards before them. He’d stopped spending Stamina to spread the antimagic out, but was confident he’d be able to catch any spells and disenchant any projectiles sent their way.

He felt another mass of enchantments approaching from up the street, past the square. “Something coming from behind.” It felt like another phalanx of guards hidden under a large illusion spell. He jabbed the spell with his aura and saw… another phalanx of guards double-timing it down the street towards them.

What are they thinking? Any one of us could take this group out without breaking a sweat. Unless they’re hiding an elite, but the gear seems to be standard. Nobody has fancy enchantments.

Nathan turned to face down the new group of guards, squaring himself to meet their charge. He was distracted by a sudden flurry of flute notes that cut across the night, but the guards were far enough away that he had time to reset to meet them.

The paired diversions were enough that Nathan only noticed the familiar set of enchantments hurtling towards them at the last moment. He was slow to react as Jaus burst out of a side alley, moving with blinding speed and swinging an absurdly large club at Stella as she began casting a spell at the guards behind them. Nathan’s heart leapt into his throat as the fighter closed in on his friend. His antimagic was following behind, but it wasn’t in place to catch Jaus before he splattered Stella across the street.

But Aarl was. He’d been watching the alley as a potential avenue of attack, and he managed to interpose himself in time. He caught the descending club on the disintegration-edged greatsword with a flash of magical energies. Both weapons survived the contact, but Jaus kept his attack going.

He threw himself towards Aarl with a flurry of blows, swinging the enormous club like it was made of styrofoam. The weight of the impacts implied it was definitely not made of styrofoam, the strength of the blows causing the stone under Aarl’s feet to crack as he blocked two, then three blows. It was only another second before Nathan’s antimagic caught up with the furious duel at a high enough concentration to do anything but that was enough for Aarl and Jaus to exchange half a dozen blows. The flute music continued to build, but Nathan couldn’t tell what it was doing.

Besides, he was busy. Nathan’s aura bore down on Jaus’s armor with the full weight of his class, completely draining the magic that made the thick metal flexible while enhancing its protective capability. Nathan had already studied the enchantments while Jaus escorted them around the city, so it only took a fraction of a second for him to reduce the suit of enchanted armor to a prison.

The sudden change threw Aarl off as Jaus’s anticipated blow never came. His sword rose to meet empty air, but then Aarl dropped one hand to his pouch. The trident from the undead army appeared in his grip, haft magically lengthening so the weapon speared almost casually into Jaus’ chest.

Nathan’s attention was jerked away from Aarl as spells and gunfire went off nearby. Khachi had engaged the guards in front and Stella had set the street behind them aflame to hold off the second group. It took a second for Nathan to trace Sarah’s shots and see her firing at a dozen identical gray-hooded figures dashing across the rooftops through a light mist. All but one were illusions, but they were all dodging and firing illusory crossbow bolts that forced Sarah to dodge and return fire.

The flute music was approaching its crescendo, and Nathan spread his aura, paranoid that he was missing some key element. He almost didn’t notice when Sarah ran out of ammunition on her revolvers. She reloaded nearly instantly, but the gray-hooded assassin had been waiting for the gap. The one that wasn't an illusion stopped and aimed for a moment, launching a lethal crossbow bolt that flew at supernatural speeds. Sarah tried to dodge, but the projectile readjusted midair to ensure it struck its target. It was the same attack that had almost killed Nathan.

The rapid fire flute music reached its crescendo in that moment, a single pure note blasting through the darkened streets. Nathan felt the sound converge through skills and unfamiliar magic to give the noise a weight that punched through his antimagic and struck the bolt like a physical blow. The deadly projectile snapped in half and flew off course, embedding itself in the wall behind Sarah.

On the rooftop above Eolinne stepped out of the mist behind the assassin, her red lips and crown of blackened branches standing out against the white background. The gray-hooded figure was already in motion, but the flute was at Eolinne’s lips and a series of sharp notes punched into the assassin from close range, sending them reeling away and clutching at their head.

Sarah’s bullet caught the assassin in the side of the head and they dropped, the spray of gore leaving a few droplets of red across Eolinne’s pure-white dress. The woman looked down at the figure splayed beneath her and daintily hopped over them and off the roof, drifting slowly down to the ground and putting her flute to her lips once more.

Nathan tensed at the motion, but the magic emanating from the instrument wasn't aimed at the Heirs. It echoed down the streets in both directions, bouncing around corners as her feet touched gently on the stone of the street.

The Heirs gathered to meet her, Khachi flashing healing magic to ensure none of the guards he’d battered were in danger of death, while Aarl pried the giant club from Jaus’ deathgrip. The weapon shrank itself to a more manageable size and slid into his dimensional storage without issue.

Eolinne’s red-painted lips twitched upwards into a satisfied smile as she regarded them. “You are entangled in the games of the Questors. Are you ready to leave this continent, and make your own moves?”

Status of Nathan Lark:

Permanent Talent 1: Arcane Nullfield 7

Permanent Talent 2: Immortal Body 6

Permanent Talent 3: Airwalking 7

Class: End of Magic level 733

Bottomless Stamina : 51283/74100

Indomitable

The Undeniable Strike of the Antimage

Stamina Burn

Momentum Mastery

Stoneflesh

Arcane Nullification

Galefoot

Close Quarters Mastery

Boundless Aura

Denial of Mysticism

The Ending of Magic

Aura Projection

Selective Dispel

The Living World

Class: Spellslayer level 525

Regenerative Focus: 3292/5350

Catastrophic Blows

Battle Stealth

Mage Infiltration

Forgettable

Sneaky Blow

Antimagic Stealth

Magical Manipulation

Lethal Index

Wizard Resistance

Magic Jammer

Controlled Failure

Utility skills:

Tranquility 1

Inspiration 8

Acceleration 10

Mystical Discernment 2

Alertness 10

Arcane Insight 2

Effortless Dodge 10

Mental Vault 5

Tutoring 7

Parkour 8

Visibility Control 4

High-tier Disguise 5

High-tier Battle Cry 2

Aura Control 3